Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

You know he’s going to shit a cat.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Republicans do not trust women.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Monday Morning Open Thread: “If You Are Going to Pervert Democracy… “

Monday Morning Open Thread: “If You Are Going to Pervert Democracy… “

by | 116 Comments

This post is in: , , ,


(Mildly NSFW – language, some insufficiently bleeped)

Voter ID, the “solution” in search of a problem, brilliantly mocked. (If you click on the video, the volume control bar will pop up along the bottom — thanks for helping me out with that, M. Bouffant!)

And on this Presidents Day, in the middle of Black History Month, Jeffrey Blount in the Washington Post — “The father of my country was a slave”:

Today is President’s Day. Through ceremony and remembrance, we celebrate our commanders in chief with a particular emphasis on the first, George Washington. Most Americans refer to him as the father of our country, but not me. The father of my country was a slave. I may not know his name, but I feel him. I do not know the plantation on which he labored beyond reason, hope and dignity, but I am with him there. His contributions are substantial but they are buried. But I have a shovel, and I dig…

I live in our nation’s capital. So did the father of my country. He worked without any choice in the quarries near the city, digging stone and hauling it, carrying the lumber that would be fashioned into the great symbols of our nation. The father of my country represented half of the workforce that built the Capitol and the White House. He was not paid, but his owner was. I look up at the statue atop the Capitol’s grand dome, and I think about Philip Reid, the slave who helped to create it. The figure is called Freedom. Such ironies are never lost on the father of my country…

***********
Apart from remembering history (and perhaps vowing to do better in the future), what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  3. 3.

    Zinsky

    Great post, Anne. I wish I were a billionaire like Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers, so that I could run nationwide prime-time TV ads every week, cataloging all the ways the Republican Party has worked to undermine American democracy, from stealing the presidential election in 2000, to voter ID laws, to fighting mail-in balloting, to purging voter rolls based on name only, and on and on and on. Sadly, many Americans are too ignorant or wrapped up in watching American Idol to pay attention to the blatant theft of our country that is going on under their noses!

  4. 4.

    Keith G

    I have a very dear friend down here in Texas who is a bit older than me (I’m 57) and we were chatting about Scalia. She mentioned that when they first heard the news that her husband let out a laugh.

    She then seemed to think “better” of this and apparently felt that she had to apologize for his breach of decorum. I assured her that it was quite alright.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Keith G: I wonder what she would say if she knew about my plans to dump my cat litter box on Scalia’s grave. “Oh, bless his heart….”?

  6. 6.

    Keith G

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well, in her defense (and I will defend her as a person who lives and works her liberal values more than all but a few)….I think it was just a hard-wired reaction, like saying “bless you” after someone sneezes. And she was being unnecessarily, but understandably, protective of her husband, I’d bet.

  16. 16.

    Keith G

    BTW, I have mentioned that am the pastry chef for a dessert cafe and chocolate shop. When VD falls on a Sunday, it is all manner of crazy. The weekend becomes a three day sugar, chocolate, and guilt fed extravaganza.

    After I finish my English fry up (here I come, Antonin), I’m off to see how much of the cafe is left.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Keith G: I wasn’t meaning to denigrate her because your right, it is hardwired, I come from Texas roots and had an Aunt who was absolutely the sweetest woman in the world, never drank, never smoked, never cussed, never said a bad thing about anyone.

    On the night my mother died after a long and difficult illness (we brought her home for her last hours on Earth), she hadn’t been gone for 5 mins. Us five kids and spouses are standing around just kind of finally letting go of all the pent up tension. The phone rings. My SIL answers it, gets this funny kind of look on her, and without a word hands it to me. The last thing I want is to deal with a phone solicitor at this moment.

    “Who the fvck are you and what the fvck do you want????”

    In a soft Texas drawl I heard, “Tom, it’s your Aunt Jean…..”

    I know she took great joy in telling that story over and over, and every time she began it with, “Bless his heart…” with never a hint of meanness to it.

  19. 19.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    The Magical Balance Fairy is flying around the Joe of the Morning set while they’re discussing the demise of Fat Tony.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @tybee: Oh no, I don’t want anything to discourage every feral cat for miles around from adding their own editorial statement.

  21. 21.

    Docg

    Morning Joe crawl notes that Kanye West is 53 million in debt and wants a billion from Mark Zuckerberg as an investment in “the greatest artist in the world”. May I suggest he make a sex tape to raise money. It’s a family tradition and he is the biggest prick on the planet.

  24. 24.

    Mustang Bobby

    Oh, Joe, Robert Bork was a disastrous appointment and Ted Kennedy’s speech denouncing it was nothing compared to the shit being shoveled by the GOP now. Go step on a rake.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @Docg

    Mr. Zuckerberg, should you be reading this, as I have significantly less debt than that would be tickled pink to receive a mere 50 grand as an investment in uninterrupted blog commenting.

  29. 29.

    Keith G

    @Amir Khalid:

    How does a recording artist at Kanye’s level of success wind up $53 million in the hole?

    Keeping up with the Kardashians, or apparently not.

    I will leave unconsidered any jokes about a $53 million hole.

  30. 30.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Oh gawd, MoDo says Hillary killed feminism(it was the tease on Joe of the Morning, I decided to CLICK).

  31. 31.

    gene108

    @Zinsky:

    Many Americans are supportive of Republican efforts to restrict voting, because they know it helps their guy win.

    I saw a lot of this in response to the 2000 Florida revelations of such things as voter purges.

    Edit: From a right-wingers world view they are in a literal war for the soul of America, as good Christians, against secular progressives, Muslims, Hindus, etc. Winning at any cost is justifiable.

  32. 32.

    gene108

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Bork got an up-or-down confirmation vote before the entire Senate and lost. Right-wingers seem to forget the fact he got an actual confirmation vote, when comparing it to McConnell’s abuse of the filibuster and whatever his current ultimatum is.

  33. 33.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @gene108: Yes, but Teddy Kennedy was soooo mean in his speech about Judge Bork and is to blame for all the partisanship we have now; so sayeth Joe of the Morning.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: I’ve seen people talk about him being filibustered so often that for a long time is forgotten he wasn’t.

    Then again, I think many don’t know what that means. I just saw a headline saying Ted Cruz had promised to filibuster any Obama nominee. How do you filibuster when you’re in the majority? I think Cruz actually just said he’d vote down any nominee and the author automatically made that a filibuster. Granted, the current status of the tactic makes it hard to tell.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just in case anybody missed it: Arch Coal agrees to deal with Wyoming for temporary cleanup relief

    Bankrupt coal miner Arch Coal Inc. has reached a deal with the state of Wyoming that will provide it with temporary relief from liability for millions of dollars in future cleanup costs for coal mines, according to court documents.

    In the past, companies like Arch Coal have covered the costs of cleaning up mines through self-bonds that allowed them to use their balance sheet as a guarantee.

    That practice has come under federal scrutiny since Arch Coal, the second-largest U.S. coal miner, and Alpha Natural Resources filed for bankruptcy, potentially leaving taxpayers exposed to billions of dollars in cleanup costs.

    …..

    In addition to Alpha and Arch, other leading coal companies Cloud Peak Energy Inc and Peabody Energy Corp also have self-bond liabilities.

    Privatizing profits while socializing risks, it’s the American Way ™.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think Cruz actually just said he’d vote down any nominee and the author automatically made that a filibuster.

    I think you way underestimate Cruz’x ability to grandstand over anything.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    In the past, companies like Arch Coal have covered the costs of cleaning up mines through self-bonds that allowed them to use their balance sheet as a guarantee.

    I can’t believe that didn’t work.

  44. 44.

    MomSense

    -13 this morning. Brrrrr. Work is canceled today and school is out on break. Going to park myself next to the fireplace.

  48. 48.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @debbie: I’m reading “Nixonland” and they were doing the same thing in 1966, I have little hope that they’ll stop in the next 50 years.

  56. 56.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Bill Kristol ‏@BillKristol Feb 13

    Best debate yet. Trump definitively exposed. Cruz, Rubio and Bush all impressive in different ways.

    Baghdad Bob Bill Kristol

  57. 57.

    Randy P

    @BillinGlendaleCA: It was her editorial yesterday. My wife was reading the NYT editorial page yesterday and handed it to me with a puzzled expression, “Who is this Maureen Dowd? This doesn’t make any sense.” I explained to her about Dowd and the decades long inexplicable Clinton hatred.

    Then she pointed to another op-ed. And who is Ross Douthat? I knew he was another writer who gets a lot of mocking on the left but I couldn’t remember the details

  59. 59.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Bill Kristol ‏@BillKristol Feb 13

    Is the Republican Party really going to nominate someone who thinks Bush (and presumably Powell, Tenet et al) KNEW there weren’t WMD? No.

    No stopping Trump now with massive reverse mojo on his side.

  60. 60.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I’ve got nothing to complain about personally but the weather so I’m going to shut my mouth and count my blessings this snowy Monday.

  61. 61.

    Chyron HR

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Bill Kristol ‏@BillKristol Feb 13

    Is the Republican Party really going to nominate someone who thinks Bush (and presumably Powell, Tenet et al) KNEW there weren’t WMD? No.

    Almost definitely. The actual question is will the Republican Party nominate someone who admits it.

  63. 63.

    Randy P

    My Scalia reaction surprised me. I have always been a little shocked by reactions of joy at a passing, without even a momentary solemn pause. But as soon as I saw the headlines I blurted out “Oh good”. And no desire at all to hear eulogies. I listened to Obama’s statement and I thought it was perfect. He managed to sound like a grownup and hit the right note of solemnity and dignity without actually praising the guy. And while pointedly indicating to McConnell how grownups act about SC vacancies.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: Ha! After 36 years of smoking and decades of crawling and climbing, those years are well in my past. At this point I will settle for starting my days with a 2 mile jaunt thru the Conservation area just down the road.

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: It will be fascinating to see how this shakes out for Trump. His bigoted ranting since the outset of the campaign hasn’t hurt him with the base because it reflects their thinking. I’m half inclined to believe he’ll get away with his Bush administration truth bombs too. Sure, Jeb Bush, Bill Kristol, Karl Rove, etc., have a clear interest in continuing the polite fiction that GWB wasn’t an utter and complete failure. But I think Uncle Tater in Catawaxahatchee is a little tired of trying to square that circle, and what’s in it for him anyway? I say Trump gets away with it.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah: We got 2-3 inches of the white stuff yesterday. Gonna be all gone by the time the sun goes down. Our predicted high is 49, climbing to 69 by Friday. We’re having a “drive-by winter” this year.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    @Chyron HR:

    The actual question is will the Republican Party nominate someone who admits it.

    The fact that Bush had been persona non grata at the last two GOP conventions would be clue that his administration wasn’t all sunshine and rose petals.

  69. 69.

    Randy P

    @Baud: The preferred narrative seems to be that we all flipped the calendars over to 2009 after Bill Clinton left office, not that the years 2001-2008 happened and anything bad happened.

    Except for the bad things that Obama caused with his time machine.

  70. 70.

    Mike J

    @debbie:

    At what point will the GOP stop this ceaseless fighting against perceived injustices of the past? This seems like their only direction anymore.

    Anymore? Newt Gingrich shut down the government because he had to use the back door on Air Force One.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @Randy P: I can live with that, so long as Obama gets to appoint justices to fill the seats that Roberts and Alito are not occupying in this alternative reality.

  73. 73.

    Poopyman

    @MomSense:

    I think the pipes froze.

    You mean the State of Maine’s? Or yours?

    Rising temps here in balmy Southern MD, which means the current snow will turn to sleet and freezing rain. Yay! Happy to be snug at home for which I blame Obama thank Lincoln’s and Washington’s moms.

  74. 74.

    debbie

    @Mike J:

    That’s a different category (individual assholedness). I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still can’t believe how the GOP fights the same losing battles, over and over and over. At the end of the day, how many times will they hold another vote to end ACA? And what will it take them to believe that Vietnam should not determine current military policy?

  75. 75.

    Amir Khalid

    @Randy P:
    Ross Douthat is Bill Kristol’s replacement as one of The New York Times‘ conservative columnists. He is mocked here for his smugness and pomposity and habit of carrying water for political conservatives. A few years ago, his book on modern Christianity in America, Bad Religion yadda yadda yadda, was reviewed in the NYT: the reviewer took Douthat to task for his poor grasp of the facts and his sloppy reasoning.

  76. 76.

    Peale

    @Randy P: yep. Progressives and Teahadis can agree. Bill Clinton was the worst president since Buchanan and all of our problems can be traced to his wife.

  77. 77.

    HRA

    Note to HRC campaign – get Bill off of the stage.

    We are all mixed race does not give him the old label of 1st Black president and saying President Obama was not for change as much as you wife is will not make more votes in your campaign.

    The above is out there and I am too tired or not enough coffee to look for it.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @HRA: From what I’ve read about it, it’s another example of bullshit journalism. But I have read the original transcript.

  79. 79.

    Peale

    @Randy P: when Ireland was facing financial disaster, Ross thought it important to note that their troubles could be traced to turning away from the Church and legalizing birth control. A lot of social and economic ills for Ross could be solved with inhibited sexual relations and chastity.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    @Amir Khalid:

    Also, he and Reihan Salan were touted as the new face of the GOP after Obama’s election. Their book, Grand New Party, was supposed to be the starting point for the GOP’s comeback. It went nowhere.

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    @HRA: If he actually said that, it was an incredibly stupid thing to say and in direct contradiction to HRC’s apparent strategy. However, the source is the New York Post, which cited unnamed “reports” in its account. Could be 99% bullshit, in other words. If he said it, there will be video. I’m gonna wait for confirmation from a more credible source before hoping Hillary gives Bill the hook…

  83. 83.

    rikyrah

    ‘My demons won today’: Ohio activist’s suicide spotlights depression among Black Lives Matter leaders

    By Wesley Lowery and Kevin Stankiewicz

    February 15 at 6:00 AM

    A solemn group stood in the shadow of the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, forming a circle on the snow-caked sidewalk. MarShawn McCarrel, 23, a well-known Black Lives Matter activist, had taken his own life on the statehouse steps. Now his friends had come together in his memory.

    As evening turned to night last week, protest organizer Rashida Davidson, 25, recounted the personal toll of two years of activism: Trouble sleeping. Bouts of anxiety. Feelings of despair.

    “This is really getting to us,” Davidson said. “And if MarShawn’s death does not show that… I don’t know what else we need to tell or show to say that this is really going on.”

    Since he died early last week, news of McCarrel’s suicide has rocked the national police protest movement, forcing a round of introspection about a reality that predates the seminal 2014 shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo.: Some of the most prominent activists and organizers are battling not only the system, but depression.

    In Oakland, Calif., a prominent activist posted the phone number for a suicide prevention hotline on her Facebook page. In Cleveland, a lead organizer confessed on Facebook that he, too, had tried to take his own life. Dozens of others have shared stories of their battles with depression, anxiety and insecurity on Twitter.

    “In the movement you’re just constantly engaging in black death, seeing the communal impact,” said Jonathan Butler, the University of Missouri graduate student whose hunger strike last fall led to the resignation of the school’s president. “You’re being faced with the reality that I’m more likely to be killed by the police, that I’m being discriminated against. You start to see all of the micro-aggressions.

  84. 84.

    Face

    There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more apropos to describe the GOP than a small snippet from this story about the GOP debate:

    “I just want to get the facts straight for the audience,” Dickerson continued, prompting boos.

    Boo’ed. For presenting facts during a GOP debate. Fucking boos for telling truths. Just amazing.

  88. 88.

    Peale

    @Face: I still don’t know if they were booing him or gay marriage maybe not all abortions are illegal Kennedy. It’s like the example from hell for conservatives.

  91. 91.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Donald J. TrumpVerified account
    ‏@ realDonaldTrump
    Now that George Bush is campaigning for Jeb(!), is he fair game for questions about World Trade Center, Iraq War and eco collapse? Careful!

    Sometimes, it takes an animated yam

  92. 92.

    henqiguai

    @MomSense(#67):

    I think the pipes froze.

    Well, certainly here in north central Massachusetts, the hose from the (outside wall-mounted) faucet to my washer is iced up. Dammit! I got the cold-water pipe wrapped with a heater ribbon, now I need to look into a heater ribbon for the washer hose. Yeah yeah yeah, tomorrow it’s gonna be around 50°F tomorrow.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think the context is that district is represented by a white Democrat and it’s majority AA so it’s a kind of inside joke for that audience- one they would understand and be part of. Clinton prides himself on that kind of specificity and local hook.

    I think this is much worse, in Nevada, by the campaign:

    “A voter registration form submitted by a Sanders volunteer is as good as a voter registration form from a Clinton volunteer,” said the source familiar with Reid’s thinking.
    The soreness created by the Clinton campaign’s comments extends beyond Reid’s allies on the ground to operatives inside the state Democratic Party. With less than a week to go before the caucus, the Democratic party has been pushing back by highlighting the diversity of the state. A memo from the state party pointed out that the 2008 entrance polls had 33 percent non-white caucus goers, and that roughly half of Nevada’s population is non-white.

    I get expectation setting and she’s certainly allowed to do that, but I think they should stop with this slicing and dicing of the Dem electorate – it’s turning into Goldilocks- these Democrats in this state are “just right”. It’s short sighted.

  94. 94.

    Punchy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I cant believe (and neither can the RNC) that it takes, ostensibly, one of their own to highlight, promote, and point out facts about the lies, manipulation, and utter failure of the GWB presidency that the media is fully aware of, but has steadfastly refused to say (both sides! Jackalope!).

    In a perverse way, I’m really happy to have Trump out there. He’s actually forcing the media to recognize and discuss shit they’d long deep-holed with a smoochy-kiss promise to the RNC to never mention again. Trump will clean out all the skeletons if it gives him the nommy; more power to him for that function alone….

  95. 95.

    Mike J

    @Randy P:

    Then she pointed to another op-ed. And who is Ross Douthat? I knew he was another writer who gets a lot of mocking on the left but I couldn’t remember the details

    One thing he will always be mocked for is his “chunky Reese Witherspoon” column. He tells of being a young lad (college? high school?) and he met a girl he was uncharitable enough to describe as “chunky” in the pages of his book. He liked her enough to want to bone her, until she told him she was taking birth control pills. After that he was unable to perform because she might have given thought to using her lady parts before actually allowing him access.

  100. 100.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    Hey juicers, are you seeing an increase in leftwingers of you acquaintance quoting or linking to questionable or even known bad sources, such as the NYPost or TheFederalist?

    Some Bernie supporters who I don’t consider Berniebros are acting like they’ve never seen a copy of CJR, let alone Crooks and Liars.

  101. 101.

    Betty Cracker

    @debbie: Nervous as a Democrat, just to clarify, not as a Clinton partisan. I get just as antsy when Devine opens his yap and says something stupid.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @ThresherK (GPad): I don’t know if it’s a phenomenon limited to Bernie supporters, but that frustrates me too. We keep talking about how awful the media is until the media attacks a Dem that we don’t like. It happened a lot with Obama too, especially in the early years.

  103. 103.

    Amir Khalid

    @srv:
    Could you point any front-pager to compelling evidence that Justice Scalia was in fact killed, that he didn’t die of natural causes? Otherwise, it’s kind of pointless to speculate about who killed him or why.

  106. 106.

    Bill_D

    Little-known fact: on a national level, there is no such thing as Presidents’ Day! It’s still Washington’s Birthday to the federal government. Check Snopes if you want more info.

  108. 108.

    Baud

    @Anya:

    Liberal blog DailyKos, meanwhile, has had the presence of mind to delete their “slam” story. When you are getting outclassed by the Dailies Kos and Caller, it’s time to think about your life, MSNBC.

    Truth.

  110. 110.

    Anya

    @Baud: That was my favorite part, tho comparing GOS to Daily Caller was a bit unfair. I am really disappointed in Chris Hayes. If I had the energy, I would call him out on twitter. He’s usually good about responding.

  111. 111.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @srv: Congratulations on confirming your handle as an acronym for Stupid Rethuglican Vulture.

    Let me provide you another acronym: FOAD.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anya: Wow, so it was a completely dishonest, steaming pile of horseshit that the wingnut media is peddling as a ratfucking initiative and Dems for whom it validates some preexisting narrative are credulously repeating? I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you!

  114. 114.

    Steve from Antioch

    Is Scalia’s wife still alive? Was she with him? Was anyone with him that night?

    What was this “party” he was attending? Who else was there in this party of 40?

    I ask not because I think there was some conspiracy to kill him, but because I assume he was there as a guest of ALEC or some other corporate douchebags and that they supplied him with a whore for the evening.

  116. 116.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Steve from Antioch:

    I assume he was there as a guest of ALEC or some other corporate douchebags and that they supplied him with a whore for the evening.

    It would only be fair. After all, he was a whore for ALEC. I was thinking something along the lines of Eyes Wide Shut, but kinkier.

    An autopsy would have shown that he died with a smile on his face. No wonder they skipped it.

Comments are closed.